Tongs for handling food items are well known, and there are a wide variety of tongs available. In general, such tongs are directed at gripping and transferring food items from one place to another, such as from a barbecue grill to a plate. Some features have been provided to enhance the ability of the tongs to grasp the food items when affecting the transfer. Also, there are tongs for special additional uses, such as the cleaning of fish. Tongs for other purposes, such as the handling of blocks of ice, have also been developed, which have inward facing pointed hooks.
Tongs having a gripping portion with a circumferential jagged edge for gripping and transferring a raw or cooked fruit or vegetable, such as a cooked potato, are common. The gripping portion works best when most of the circumferential jagged edge makes contact with most of the fruit or vegetable.
However, such tongs cannot work well for peeling fruits and vegetables. For example, peeling a raw potato using tongs having a jagged circumferential edge around the gripping portion presents safety and control concerns, particularly when the potato needs to be grasped close to an end so as to expose a major portion of the potato for peeling. Attempting to grip the slippery peeled surface at the peeled end of the potato with such tongs increases the risk of losing control of the potato, and can result in injury and/or dropping the potato. This is also true for most fruits and vegetables, such as cucumbers, zucchini, mangos, kiwis, carrots, etc. Cooked or over-ripe fruits and vegetables can be even more challenging to grip while peeling.
The peeling of a raw potato, or other fruit or vegetable, by hand can be difficult and presents safety concerns, particularly when a portion that has already been peeled needs to be grasped to complete the peeling process. The slippery peeled surface increases the risk of cuts to the hand from a knife or peeler as the peeling process continues.